By Woodrow Carroll
Would you believe it? The MLB’s worst teams, the Chicago White Sox and Colorado Rockies, were winners last Sunday.
Playing at home, the White Sox defeated the Miami Marlins last Sunday to improve their record 12-29. Better yet, the White Sox, who finished last season with the MLB’s worst record of 41-121, and the victory over the Marlins was the second win in their three-game series with the visitors. A very rare series victory for the White Sox.
The Colorado Rockies were 9-3 winners at San Diego Padres Sunday. The day before, the Padres embarrassed Colorado by winning, 21-0.
If you had laid a wager on both the White Sox and Rockies winning Sunday, you would have cashed in the odds greatly in your favor.
But, Sunday’s Colorado conquest was not enough to save Rockies’ manager Bud Black’s job. Black, in his ninth season with the Rockies, was terminated as manager Sunday. A mercy killing in the minds of those familiar with the Rockies organization.
For those looking for a trivia question to trip somebody up, I will toss one out for you.
Name the only two Major League Baseball franchises never to have won a World Series game? Most will come up with the Seattle Mariners who have yet to reach the World Series at any time in the team’s history. As to the second team, we have our answer after giving the question some thought: The Colorado Rockies. The Rockies did reach the 2007 World Series, only to fall four straight games to the Boston Red Sox in the Fall Classic.
The fact that the 2007 Colorado Rockies even reached the playoffs, much less the World Series, is a tale in itself. With 15 games left in the 2007 regular season, the Rockies were 76-72. A playoff berth seemed a stretch. Then, Colorado took off! The Rockies went 14-1 to finish regular-season play.
Colorado’s strong finish in 2007 was good enough for a Wild Card Playoff Game against San Diego. It took 13 innings to dispatch the San Diego Padres. But, the Rockies did win, 9-8 to reach the NL Divisional Series.
The Rockies took out the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-0, to move on in postseason activity. Next came the Arizona Diamondbacks with a berth in the World Series at stake. More of the same as the Rockies rolled over Arizona four straight games.
By the time the Rockies and Red Sox squared off in the 2007 World Series, the Rockies had won 21 of 22 games. Four games later, Colorado had won 21 of 26, if you get the picture.
Clint Hurdle was the Rockies’ manager during that glorious 2007 season. After last weekend’s managerial shakeup in the Rockies’ organization, Hurdle is back in the Colorado picture. Hurdle is serving as interim bench coach after serving as hitting coach under Black.
Jeff Francis is a name that does not come readily to mind unless you are a fervid Rockies fan. During the 2007 season, Francis, a Canadian-born southpaw, was 17-9 and was easily the ace of the Colorado pitching staff. Francis won 44 games for the Rockies from 2005-2007. And, that was it for the lefty who never won more than six games for a number of teams after his run with the Rockies. Francis saw his Major League career that came to an end after the 2015 season.